Sharp's prototype smartwatch makes sacrifices for longer battery life

It's not e-ink, but it is different

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Smartwatch makers have gone to some lengths to try to solve the battery problem, and Sharp is the latest to take a crack.

With its first prototype smartwatch, Sharp opts to axe the backlight in favor of a reflective surface that illuminates the wearable's display using light that hits its surface - saving oodles of battery life.

This is a pretty severe trade-off, though, as it gives you great viewing capabilities in sunlight, but zero in the dark.

When do you use your smartwatch most - night or day? This Sharp tech's success depends on that question.

Looking sharp

That said, the 1-inch, 8-color Sharp smartwatch is only a prototype for now.

Sharp is reportedly in talks with smartwatch manufacturers over using the screen tech in their devices, so we'll see if this pops up anywhere.

The prototype also saves on battery with special semiconductor memory that reportedly stores and reproduces the on-screen image using less power than standard RAM.

One other device maker, Onyx, tackled the battery problem in October with an e-ink smartwatch, though we've yet to see anything come of that either.